SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 138,200 - 190,100 / annual
Archer Technologies is an aerospace company building all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for sustainable air mobility. The Special Programs team is a rapid-prototyping, cross-functional engineering group focused on advanced and defense-oriented development efforts.
In this role, you will lead the design and validation of advanced mission behaviors and tactics for prototype vehicles operating in contested or dynamic environments. Your core responsibilities include architecting behavior systems, developing decision logic, and conducting scenario-based validation. You'll support the full development lifecycle from concept through hardware-in-the-loop and flight testing.
Key responsibilities:
- Design and validate advanced mission behaviors, tactics, and behavior architectures for prototype vehicles
- Own the advanced behaviors discipline within Special Programs, setting technical standards and validation methods
- Conduct technical feasibility assessments of emerging concepts, RFPs, and mission requirements
- Support rapid prototyping end-to-end, from simulation through flight test
- Serve as a cross-functional technical contributor across Special Programs when needed
- Collaborate with program leads and broader engineering teams to align technical approaches
- Produce technical documentation, trade studies, and analysis packages
- Represent Special Programs work in internal reviews and government stakeholder discussions
You'll work independently with significant technical ownership in a small, fast-moving team. This is not a people-management role but rather a deep technical leadership position requiring expertise in autonomous/semi-autonomous aerospace systems, behavior modeling, and simulation environments.
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Computer Science, Robotics, or related field; 8–12 years of relevant engineering experience; demonstrated experience developing or validating mission-level behaviors for autonomous aerospace/defense systems; familiarity with behavior modeling and scenario-based validation; ability to work across full development lifecycle in resource-constrained environments; comfort operating as a generalist; U.S. Person status (ITAR/EAR requirement); ability to obtain and maintain U.S. government security clearance.
